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Wenger needs to banish the ghost of Stoke on Saturday

Last December when Arsenal travelled to Stoke was probably one of the lowest points of Arsene Wenger’s reign at the club. Strangely enough Arsene had failed to buy a striker and a DM during the transfer window and the Gunners had suffered an awful start to the season, so desperately needed three points at the Britannia Stadium.

But Stoke flew into a 1-0 lead after just 20 seconds and were scarily 3-0 up before half-time. The banners had started to appear (remember – Thanks for the memories….) and there were fist fights between our own supporters. Arsenal staged a fight-back in the second half but the game ended with a 3-2 defeat.

Then worst of all, Wenger and his team were waylaid as they boarded the train home, with some “supporters” swearing and abusing Le Prof. The incident was videoed and was quickly released on youtube and was roundly condemned by the media and respectable Arsenal fans.

After that game, Arsenal rallied and won four and drew one of their next five games, and Wenger finally dragged the team back up to third place in the League and retained the FA Cup, but that has seemingly all been but forgotten….

Now we have Deja Vu… We are going through another “crisis” as Wenger has yet again failed to buy a striker or DM, and the fans are getting extremely angry after a very so-so start to the season, and who are our next opponents? Stoke of course!

Having only gained one point from our first two home games, we can only be nervous ahead of a visit from the “rugby team” and if Wenger cannot gain all three points from this encounter then all hell will break loose! Stoke are currently second bottom of the Premier League table and are without a win so far from their four games, but you can be sure they will give us a tough fight in every single meeting, given our chequered history, but this is one match that Arsene simply cannot afford to lose…..

Yeah the Brittania is where we struggle against Stoke, we’re generally fine against them at home. But very team we play at the Emirates is causing us trouble at the moment. What we really need is to score 3 or 4 goals so the team doesn’t come under pressure for a lack of firepower after the transfer saga.

Ahh haha sort of disregarded the quotation marks!! I know right? One would think we’re playing with 9 players on the pitch at the moment the way people continually talk of those two positions. Neglecting that Coquelin’s been utterly dominant.

Says it all really doesn’t it? At home we have barely ever dropped points against them. Away…well that’s a whole different kettle of fish.

Stoke has historically always been hard to play away to. They are in a northern part of England where it is colder, windier and their pitch is usually less conducive to football with the grass allowed to lengthen and a very narrow, short pitch to give less space. The crowd is also an added figure with some of the most vile fans I’ve ever seen who have chants that are absolutely disgusting and are far worse then the chants they’ve attempted to ban at Arsenal games (I.e. about Spurs). As a team, they’ve usually been designed to stop you playing and score goals through set plays and bullying rather then football – the anti-arsenal as it were.

To put it bluntly – we must be prepared for a tough game but many of the advantages which usually tip the scales won’t be there for them at the weekend. Add to this, we should always be able to beat them, we just need to not be suicidal like we were last season. Ultimately we are by far the better team and need to focus on our football, while countering their tactics.

Also – pray for a decent referee. Stoke is one of those games were a bad ref can actively have an awful impact on things. Just take our last game against Newcastle – a bad ref in that game you’d have seen Arsenal getting hacked to pieces and Newcastle given extended warnings. The ref must punish bad tackles, not letting players get away with warnings when they deliberately break the rules of the game. Fingers crossed…

As we saw opening day of the season.. Previous records should be taken with a pinch of salt.
Thanks for the facts though!
I’m nervously confident. There’s just been way too many surprises so far, for us and others.
I think we need a big win as a bit of a confidence boost. Help the team get back to their best.
I’d still take 3pts decided by an own goal though!

Wenger must play counter attacking football against stoke in order to stop them from parking the bus and should win by 3 or 4 or more goals to increase the confidence against chelsea at Stanford bridge.

Alexis and Theo have tasted the goal on international duty, let them bring back at form to Arsenal. We need these two to start firing again especially Alexis who is a guaranteed starter. No need to over relay on OG for goals as his case is well documented its the players who need to step up too.

It will be a tricky game, its a whole new Stock with maybe just 2 to 3 players with the rugby mentality (Charlie Austin the leader) so lets expect a tighter game than usual.

Twig.. Don’t know if you realized. But a certain German is missing from your line-up. Big eyes, crazy good play-maker, creates chances like it’s going out of fashion, exceptional movement and pretty much all of our good play has been running through him! Forget his name though..

Haha jokes aside, I rate Ramsey extremely highly. But for me his decision making in dictating the play just isn’t there for a 10 (yet, still young). I agree wholeheartedly that we should play your suggested front three. But Ozil continued his pretty good form for Germany whereas Ramsey was disappointing from what I saw. Our incisiveness has been lacking whereas our chance creation is not. Ozil is a must have for me when approaching a likely organized Stoke defence. Especially if Theo and Sanchez are running the channels.

ramsey is another waste of space in starting 11 good for bench and cup games….sick and tired of hearing about engines etc …need to push ozil forward and surround him with fast attacking options..for me ox over walcott…wilshere and santi given freedom to roam behind and keep coquelin back…need a pacey defence so gab must start over the stick insect….

its a ust win.
Like alost every game at home.
I support my team and coach but he brought this pressure on himself…i am pretty shure that even a “player for the fiture” kind of buy in DM or ST would have eased the mental aspect of it all.

We did. It just went really under the radar. Donyell Malen a striker from Ajax. I always check what opposing teams reaction is when we poach their youngsters. Ajax fans were not happy! Mavididi’s scoring record’s been great in the youth set-up as well. His physique is well beyond his years with quick feet and a strong finisher. Check him out.
We jacked our academy. Google what the City fans were saying about Ismael Bennacer when they thought they were getting him! Jeff, obviously. Some fans actually rated Fortune higher than him but we’ve obviously yet to see any of him. VLAD THE IMPALER! And them sweet asses he posts on instagram. Haha.
Every generation has it’s small successes and let downs. I can’t see how we can fit Crowley and Zelalem into future plans and I personally think it’ll be Crowley who makes it, kids got some serious talent. Bielik and Hayden are two promising DM’s. Then there’s Sanogo and Akpom. Wingers and supporting forwards gallore with Gnabry, Silva, Campbell, Iwobi and Maitland-Niles. Haha and if any of these guys are gonna make it for us they’re going to have to compete with Ox, Wilshere, Ramsey and Coquelin!

Our future is incredibly bright! I’d rather nurture the talent we have properly than stockpile youth for numbers sake. Chelsea and City’s youth policy is abysmal. And LVG just loaned their brightest talent to BVB. Criticism of Wenger’s success is obviously founded. But the way he bloods youngsters and brings them through is simply first-class.

Arsenal need to banish Wenger never mind Stoke.After this Transfer window NO TOP class player will want to come to Arsenal. Wenger has lost his way and needs to go now. It like he has some kind of time lock on his wallet. Time for a change new blood Wenger Out.

That is of course assuming that all of our young squad doesn’t continue to develop.. (Bellerin, Ox, Coquelin, Ramsey, Gabriel, Wilshere.. I could go on) Our problem was never making stars. It was hanging onto them.

The Gunners having an awful start to the season? For me, not at all. It is Stoke that are having an awful start to the season and not Arsenal. The Gunners will ultimately made the Potters outing at the Emirates Stadium awful on Saturday to the extent, the potters will not recognize the way out of the Emirates Stadium, save they be led out by the Stadium stewards. The Potter’s game application data play operates on the 2G generation in contrast to the superior Gunners’ game application data play that runs on the 4G long term evolution (LTE) which makes it possible for the Gunners to switch to any of the 7 known playing formations of: 6-3-1, 3-6-1, 5-4-1, 4-5-1, 4-4-2, 4-3-3 & 4-2-3-1 with ease and comfort during any game. The reason being the Gunners Lte data application accepts all game data running. Whereas the Potters game data application can only run on the 1G & 2G generation which centers on rubgy forcefulness and directness gaming. This contrast the Gunners’ game data application that runs dynamically. The Gunners game is way far ahead of that of the Potters outdating game. Therefore, the Gunners will make a mincemeat out of the Potters and Condemn them to the very foot of the table after the game encounter. AFC 5-0 SCFC. Full Time 90” +